OH:
Even WaPo’s Chris Cillizza says the “controversy is so incredibly dumb.”
Author Archive: Stephen Green
February 28, 2017
MISSISSIPPI GOVERNOR TO CHURCHES: Follow ‘Man’s Law’ and Stop Harboring Illegal Immigrants.
BUDGET SPEECH PREVIEW: Trump Is Planning These Cuts to Make Way for a Military Spending Surge.
Domestic programs and foreign aid would as a whole absorb a 10%, $54 billion cut from currently projected levels—cuts that would match the military increase. The cuts would be felt far more deeply by programs and agencies targeted by Trump and his fellow Republicans, like the Environmental Protection Agency as well as foreign aid. Veterans’ programs would be exempted, as would border security, additional law enforcement functions and some other areas.
“We’re going to start spending on infrastructure big. It’s not like we have a choice—our highways, our bridges are unsafe, our tunnels,” the president told a group of governors at the White House on Monday. He added, “We’re going to do more with less and make the government lean and accountable to the people.”
However, Trump’s final version of the budget is sure to leave large deficits intact—or even add to them if he follows through on his campaign promise for a huge tax cut.
His plan faces strong opposition from Democrats, who possess the power to block it. The immediate reaction from Republicans was mixed, with prominent defense hawks like Sen. John McCain of Arizona saying it would do too little to help the Pentagon and fiscal conservatives and supporters of domestic agencies expressing caution.
This is where we find out if the President has any cat-herding skills.
By the time the government feels the need to appoint a sex tsar to cure the country’s fertility problem, it’s probably too late.
CHANGE: Trump to sign order reviewing EPA water rule.
The order — which is currently in draft form and subject to change before Tuesday afternoon, when Trump is expected to sign it — addresses the “Waters of the United States” rule, which applies to 60% of the bodies of water in the US.
The regulation was created under the Clean Water Act in the early 1970s and essentially gives the federal government authority over major bodies of water, rivers, streams and wetlands, allowing the federal government to police these waterways to ensure they are pollution free.
Trump’s executive order requires the EPA and other applicable departments to review the regulation and ensure it promotes economic growth and minimizes uncertainty when it comes to regulation. The order then requires agencies to rescind or revise aspects of the regulation that are incompatible with the new policy guidance.
By reviewing the regulation, the administration can begin to pick it apart and weaken it.
Critics, including some in the farming community, have complained that the rule restricted how they could use their land and had a negative economic impact on their business.
The CNN report above blandly describes the “Waters of the United States” rule as a four-decade-old holdover, but that simply isn’t true. In its current form it dates back only to 2015, greatly expanded on EPA’s own “authority,” and was controversial then:
On its face, the Waters of the United States rule is largely a technical document, defining which rivers, streams, lakes and marshes fall under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. But opponents condemn it as a massive power grab by Washington, saying it will give bureaucrats carte blanche to swoop in and penalize landowners every time a cow walks through a ditch. And it comes amid years of complaints from Republicans about President Barack Obama’s regulatory agenda, which has encompassed everything from power plants and health insurers to Internet providers and for-profit colleges.
Ideologues at EPA seem to believe that the entire U.S. economy should fall under their purview, and that everything they have not made mandatory ought to be forbidden.
ENJOY THE SILENCE: Anti-Trump Feminists Plan ‘Day Without A Woman’ Strike.
NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR: Trump is the best thing ever to happen to our subscriptions.
“Trump is the best thing to happen to the Times’ subscription strategy,” said Dean Baquet, executive editor of the Times on CNN Sunday. “Every time he tweets it drives subscriptions wildly.”
He added, “Our digital subscriptions are through the roof, our print subscriptions are up.”
So I suppose the answer to my question, “How long can they keep it cranked up to 11?” is: “As long as it’s working.”
KRAZY KIM: North Korea reportedly kills 5 senior officials with antiaircraft guns.
The execution, which was punishment for unspecified “false reports” that were made to Mr. Kim, according to the intelligence report, came amid fresh allegations from Seoul that the Pyongyang government had ordered and coordinated the killing of Mr. Kim’s half brother in Malaysia.
In a closed-door briefing before lawmakers on Monday in Seoul, Lee Byung-ho, the director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, said that the daylight slaying of Kim Jong Nam with a deadly nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13 was “a state terrorist act, systematically organized by Kim Jong Un,” according to lawmaker Kim Byung-kee, who attended the hearing.
Mr. Lee didn’t say how the intelligence service got its information. South Korea’s spy agency sometimes errs in its assessments of developments inside North Korea, one of the world’s most closed societies. But often it is proven correct.
Message to troublemakers: Kim can kill you anywhere, by any means he desires.
February 27, 2017
ONE OF THESE DAYS, ALICE… Elon Musk and SpaceX Announce Return to Moon.
IN THEIR PLACE, WOULDN’T YOU BE TOO? Huffington Post Thrilled by Meaningless Dem Win in Delaware.
WETWARE IS STILL THE BEST-WARE: The future of computing may be inside our skulls.
HMM: Pending home sales drop unexpectedly to lowest in a year, down 2.8% in January.
We’ve been creaking along for almost a decade, borrowing for sub-par growth with bubble-tastically low interest rates, unsustainable deficit spending, and slowly expanding the market for car and home loans to worse and worse credit risks. But even lousy parties must end eventually.
SALON: The cognitive effects of this administration’s actions could be disastrous.
Trump has certainly made segments of the Professional Left seem further removed from reality than usual, which is no small feat.
RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: Video shows beheading of sailor by ISIS-linked terrorists.
In 2008, beheading victim Gustav Kantner had been held captive by Somali pirates for two months.
THEY TOLD ME THAT IF TRUMP BECAME PRESIDENT, NARROW-MINDED CONFORMISTS WOULD SHUT DOWN VITAL RESEARCH — AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Threatening Violence, Trans Activists Expel Un-PC Research At Medical Conference.
QUESTION ASKED: Why did Keith Ellison lose the DNC race?
As this year’s “establishment” candidate, Perez posed almost no ideological challenge to Ellison or Sanders voters, or the party platform they had helped to write. (Ellison served on the 2016 platform committee.) He broke with them on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which, as a member of the Obama administration, he supported. But when he did so, he always posited TPP as an improvement on deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he’d opposed.
But on most of the left’s other causes, Perez was simpatico. Inside the Obama administration, he supported raising the minimum wage and endorsed the Fight for $15 campaign; he pushed through regulations that hiked overtime pay; he sued states that implemented voter ID laws. In the summer of 2016, when he was floated as a running mate for Hillary Clinton, conservatives labeled him radical, and progressive groups said he’d be preferable to the eventual choice, Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.).
Ellison would have struggled to run to Perez’s left, and he largely did not try.
In other words, Perez won because he’s just as “progressive” as Ellison, but carries less baggage.
For the 2017-18 DNC, it’s still about marketing, not about moderation.
OOPS: Woman Pictured in Oscars’ ‘In Memoriam’ Video Is Still Very Much Alive.
Any publicity is good publicity?
ACCOUNTABILITY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: EPA Employees Spend $15k in Government Money on Gym Memberships.